The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on your ancestral house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria.”
When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife of prostitution and have children of prostitution, for the land commits great prostitution by forsaking the Lord.”
Ephraim herds the wind and pursues the east wind all day long; they multiply falsehood and violence; they make a treaty with Assyria, and oil is carried to Egypt.
When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria and sent to the great king. But he is not able to cure you or heal your wound.
For I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins— you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe and push aside the needy in the gate.
A firstborn bull—majesty is his! His horns are the horns of a wild ox; with them he gores the peoples all together to the ends of the earth; such are the myriads of Ephraim, such the thousands of Manasseh.”